Did you know falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths in adults over 75?1 As winter approaches, icy walkways, shorter days, and joint pain create a perfect storm for falls. However, falls aren’t inevitable. They’re preventable.
With the right steps, you can stay safe, confident, and independent all season long. Today, we’ll discuss how to prevent fall risk at home and with the help of a trusted physiotherapist for a safe and cosy winter.
What is Ageing and How Does it Put You at Risk for a Fall?
Ageing is a biological process that we all experience. While everyone experiences ageing differently, the ageing process is loosely tied to a set of changes that occur in the body. How you experience ageing depends on several factors, including genetics, lifestyle, and demographic group.2
Age-related changes can include an increased risk of disease and shifts in physical and mental abilities.2 Alongside these transformations, ageing also heightens the risk of falls due to potential changes like loss of muscle mass3, impaired vision and hearing4, cognitive changes, and health conditions like arthritis or cardiovascular issues.5
By understanding these changes, we can take proactive steps to minimise fall risks and maintain independence as we age.
Falls Prevention: Steps You Can Take to Decrease Your Risk
Falls prevention starts with you. From changing your natural environment to using assistive safety equipment, you can make the first steps toward a safer life that supports your health and abilities.
Vision and Hearing Assessments
Getting annual vision assessments and talking to your healthcare provider if you feel it’s become harder to hear is vital to fall prevention. Your healthcare providers can help you find assistive hearing devices, like hearing aids, and suggest lifestyle changes that support vision changes. This may include an updated glasses prescription, not driving at night, and using bright lighting in your living spaces.
Use Mobility Aids
Life doesn’t have to become more difficult as movement becomes more challenging. Fall-proofing your home is a way to ensure your environment supports your needs rather than acting as an obstacle for you to maneuver around.
Here are some ways you can fall-proof your home:
- Install bright lighting
- Keep floors clear of clutter and objects that are easy to trip on, like rugs
- Keep items you reach for below shoulder height
- Install grab bars near the shower and toilet
- Use a shower seat and an adjustable shower head
- Use rubber anti-slip mats or strips in the tub and shower
- Have a sturdy chair you can sit in to dress
- Use automatic night lights
- Turn on entrance hall lights at night
- Keep the walkways around your home clear of debris
Stay Healthy and Active
One of the best things you can do to prevent age-related disease in the mind and body is exercise. While not all diseases that come with age are preventable, many are. You can stay strong, fit, and confident in your body by eating healthily and maintaining appropriate activity levels.
Staying healthy and active not only helps prevent falls; it helps you recover from them in case they happen. It also prevents the cycle of inactivity, which occurs when your fear of falling leads to reduced activity levels. Because you’re less active, you’re more likely to fall – and if you do fall, your fear of falling is reinforced.
Staying active can keep you healthy and out of this cycle.

How a Physiotherapist Can Help Prevent Falls
While falls prevention starts with you, a good physiotherapist like those at Physit is an important part of a falls prevention plan. We can ensure your home is safe, assess your fall risk, and provide individualised therapy to decrease the chance of a fall.
Home Safety Assessment
A Physit physiotherapist can conduct a home safety assessment to identify fall risks. This standard assessment includes a comprehensive look at your home environment, identifying any specific hazards, and evaluating your physical abilities and ease of movement at home. We’ll provide you with recommendations for further home modifications, lifestyle changes, and safety equipment.
Falls Assessment and Individualised Therapy
A Physit physiotherapist can also conduct a falls assessment to create an individualised therapy plan for you. Falls assessments are based on standard outcome measures like the Timed Up and Go6 and 4-Stage Balance Test7, which assess your mobility, balance, walking ability, and risk of falls.
Everyone’s starting point is different when they come to physiotherapy for fall risk prevention. There is no one “normal” starting point. That’s why we perform falls assessments. We make sure you can get therapy that meets you where you’re at, targeting YOUR specific strength, balance, and mobility goals.
Hear What a Physit Patient Has to Say About Physiotherapy
Here’s how Jean, a Physit patient aged 90 years, talks about her experience with Physit’s Falls Prevention Programme:
“2 or 3 years ago, I realised that walking on uneven surfaces was increasingly difficult. I heard of the Falls Prevention Programme, and I thought this could be what I needed. Twice a week, for eight weeks, I did supervised exercises with a physiotherapist. I have followed this with fortnightly sessions.
Shortly after I had finished the initial programme, I went on holiday to the Hill Towns of Italy. To my delight, I realized I could navigate the terrain without issue. This is wonderful for me as it means that I can continue the holidays and activities that I have always enjoyed.”
Strength and Balance Exercises You Can Do at Home
Our goal as physiotherapists is to empower you to live confidently on your own as much as is possible. So here are a few strengthening and balancing exercises you can try at home to give you a taste of what one of our physiotherapists might include in a program.
Sit to Stand
3 sets / 10 reps

- Start in a standing position.
- Slowly lower your bottom back into the middle of the chair.
- Once sitting bring your bottom to the edge of the chair with your feet back underneath you.
- Stand up until you are completely upright and then gradually sit back down.
- Control this movement and then repeat.
If you do need to use your hands, try to limit their use as much as you comfortably can.
Double Leg Heel Raise
3 sets / 10 reps

- Stand up straight next to a wall or supporting surface such as the back of a chair, table or benchtop.
- Keep your knees straight, and then raise up onto your tip toes.
- Slowly lower your heel back down.
This is great to do whilst watching the news or your favourite programme or waiting for the kettle to boil.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make an appointment with a London physiotherapist?
To make an appointment with a Physit therapist, contact us at 0204 570 2391, and a team member will help you arrange your first visit.
How do I prepare for my falls prevention appointment?
All we need is a safe area for a treatment table to be set up. We require you to be ready and dressed appropriately for the area being treated. If you have any scans or reports (X-ray, CT, MRI) or discharge notes, please have these ready for your therapist.
Read more of our FAQs and contact us if you can’t find the answer you need.
Move Confidently with a Customised Physit Treatment Plan
We know that the changes that come with ageing can be unexpected and, sometimes, scary. However, they don’t have to define your life or how you age. With our experienced physiotherapists, you can learn how to prevent falls before they happen, strengthen your muscles, and improve your balance.
Physit is a mobile physiotherapy service that brings treatment to your door so you can receive care where you’re most comfortable. We’re committed to making physiotherapy accessible to everyone, and we work to customise treatment plans backed by the latest evidence. Book your first Physit appointment today and discover a healthier way to live.
Footnotes
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data and statistics about falls. CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/falls/data-research/index.html. Accessed December 6, 2024.
- World Health Organization. Ageing and health. WHO website. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health. Accessed December 6, 2024.
- Rolland YM, Czerwinski S, van Kan GA, et al. Sarcopenia: its assessment, etiology, pathogenesis, consequences, and future perspectives. J Nutr Health Aging. 2008;12(7):433-450. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2804956/. Accessed December 6, 2024.
- Lin FR, Metter EJ, O’Brien RJ, Resnick SM, Zonderman AB, Ferrucci L. Hearing loss and falls: the potential mediating role of cognition. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(4):369-371. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3518403/. Accessed December 6, 2024.
- National Institutes of Health. Fall risk factors. In: Geriatrics Review Syllabus: A Core Curriculum in Geriatric Medicine. 9th ed. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560761/. Accessed December 6, 2024.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. CDC website. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/timed-up-and-go-test. Accessed December 6, 2024.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. STEADI Assessment: Four-Stage Balance Test. CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/media/pdfs/STEADI-Assessment-4Stage-508.pdf. Accessed December 6, 2024.